Investigate Him from Head to Toe! -1
Yu Gyeong spent the entire day turning over the events of the previous night in his mind.
Just imagining that wolf of a man snatching away the little sister he would not even let dust settle on was enough to make his blood surge backward through his veins…
"What on earth have you all been doing?"
"We beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!"
"Look at Sama Yeom! In a single stroke he wiped out the vermin that had been gnawing at this empire for more than fifteen years, and he even uprooted those bandits who strutted about calling themselves the Seventy-Two Strongholds!"
"We beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!"
"And that is not all! Not a single hair on a government soldier's head was harmed in the process, and he recovered wealth beyond reckoning and delivered it to the central treasury—while you lot did what, exactly, in the meantime?"
"We beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!"
"Yet with the gold Sama Yeom so generously handed over, you cannot even draft a single budget or gather a single coherent opinion—what are you doing?!"
"We beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!!"
After venting the seething fury in his gut through a vigorous session of state affairs, his head finally cleared. A man really does need work. Having thoroughly purged his irritation and nodding in satisfaction, Yu Gyeong returned to last night's thoughts.
What a waste of precious time that was.
He had pressed Hyeok Gi-rin far too hard and burned needless hatred toward an imaginary brother-in-law, squandering hours that could have been spent simply talking after twelve long years apart. Instead of savoring the chance to share idle conversation, he had let rage seize him and thrown the time away.
In my haste I threw away time more precious than gold.
It was true that marriage, while possible for a princess living in the Imperial Palace, was impossible for one living as a man in the Murim. Yet even so, he had been far too impatient. Marriage was a turning point that split a person's life in two; it was not something one could finish off as casually as roasting beans over a flash of lightning. Even if Hyeok Gi-rin already had someone she liked, there was nothing that could be done about it while she remained inside the palace.
Turning Yu Ya's heart through marriage would not have been too late even after she left the capital. Last night I failed to do what I should have done.
Blinded by the sensational fact, he had failed to see the forest. Marriage was not the only lever that could make Hyeok Gi-rin decide to return to the imperial family. If he could make the palace feel closer and more joyful than the Murim, would she not come back of her own accord?
Yu Gyeong nodded in satisfaction.
Yes. This was the correct strategy.
He retraced his childhood and pulled up every shared memory he could recount with Hyeok Gi-rin. Each one was a tale steeped in innocence, a precious recollection that still made his chest tighten.
"Hahaha."
Yes, this was right. Yu Gyeong burst into laughter.
He felt his mind grow clear and light.
Hyeok Gi-rin as a martial artist had looked so thoroughly happy—and so distant—that he had desperately tried to seize her. But had that truly been the proper attitude for an elder brother?
An elder brother's duty was to do everything in his power so that Hyeok Gi-rin could live a happy life.
While she stayed in the palace, he would strive to laugh together with her every day. He ought to let her taste the joy of family and the pleasure of living in the palace, should he not?
So he would erase every useless thought from his head and think only of spending pleasant time with Hyeok Gi-rin.
Wearing a gentle smile as he sipped his tea, Yu Gyeong suddenly froze at the report of a palace maid from the Gungcheong Hall.
"We have found the one Princess Yuya holds in her heart."
"Haa."
Alone in her room after dismissing every maid, Hyeok Gi-rin let out a long sigh and propped her chin on her hand.
Illusion Resistance…
She toyed with the Solar Cap resting atop her head. One of the imperial treasures, it literally held yang energy within it. Because it radiated an aura like the sun itself, it made the wearer appear trustworthy and masculine.
Every living person leaked a faint trace of qi; men leaked yang, women yin. Wearing the Solar Cap made even a woman give the impression of a man.
After leading Ho Cheon-an, Heukmyo, and Yeo Il-ye to Sama Yeom's residence, a drinking party had opened. When she woke from a drunken stupor, she learned that Sama Yeom had already realized both Heukmyo and Ho Cheon-an were women in men's clothing.
At the time she had simply thought him sharp-eyed and let it pass.
Only after hearing at the Jeomchang Sect that Ho Cheon-an possessed a constitution with Illusion Resistance did she understand they had been seen through from the very beginning… yet nothing actually changed.
Cross-dressing… I was always leaving room to be discovered.
At Hyeok Gi-rin's level it was possible to employ Reverse Form techniques that completely altered bone structure. She deliberately kept her original physique for a reason.
Perfect disguise that would make people cry "Hyeok Gi-rin a woman in men's clothes? Impossible!" had never been the goal.
The goal had been a precarious disguise that would make people murmur, "Well… I suppose it could be true…"
Female martial artists were not forbidden, after all. The reason she had chosen to live as a man was to damage the legitimacy of the succession and, at the same time, to freeze the movements of the still-powerful faction that supported Princess Yuya.
If she had not become a cross-dressing martial artist… Hyeok Gi-rin imagined the alternative and gave a bitter smile. She would never have been able to remain at the Jeomchang Sect until now.
The central faction that had backed her then had been quite strong. They would have used every means, fair or foul, to drag her back to the palace, and countless sacrifices and incidents would have followed. In the worst case the nation itself might have split into two warring camps.
That disaster never occurred precisely because she had become Hyeok Gi-rin—the cross-dressing martial artist.
Princess Yuya had actually become a martial artist and was training in martial arts! Worse, she was living as a man and committing the bizarre act of dressing as one!
Becoming a martial artist, becoming an official disciple of the Jeomchang Sect, cross-dressing—each was a fatal flaw in her legitimacy. The moment the truth spread, the faction supporting Princess Yuya would have been finished.
Therefore they had been forced to return her to the palace in absolute secrecy, and even those attempts could only be carried out with the barest minimum of force so that no rumor would leak.
In the capital Yu Gyeong had actively obstructed the Princess Yuya faction, while the Jeomchang Sect had blocked any physical force.
If… I had not chosen the life of a cross-dressing martial artist…
An unspeakable amount of blood would have flowed. And when that blood finally decided a victor and a loser, either Yu Chan or Hyeok Gi-rin would have been forced to bear the responsibility for it.
She had prevented that catastrophe. Yu Gyeong had steadily strengthened imperial authority, built a family, and secured the succession with a child. Hyeok Gi-rin, as a disciple of the Jeomchang Sect, had cared for her juniors and carved out a new life outside the palace.
It was a truly ideal outcome. She thought that even if she were given the chance to return to the past and choose again, she would still choose the life of the cross-dressing martial artist Hyeok Gi-rin over the life of a princess.
Even so…
Even so, a lingering regret remained.
If she had stood before Ho Cheon-an wearing beautiful robes, makeup, and ornaments of gold and jewels…
Would she have heard words other than "friend"?
Could she have remained in his mind as someone a little more special?
"What am I still regretting at this point?"
Hyeok Gi-rin rubbed her cheek and forced her spirits up. Her elder brother would arrive soon. This precious chance would last two weeks at most. She did not want to wear a funeral face and make him worry on such days.
As if on cue, a knock sounded and a palace maid announced Yu Gyeong's arrival.
"Heh heh, Elder Brother, you have come."
"Yes, Yu Ya. Did you pass the day well?"
"I did. It was a little stifling, but… bearable enough."
"Haha. You were always full of energy even as a child. Whenever the maids lost track of you, the first place they looked was outside."
"Was that so… Now that I think of it, I mostly remember playing in the gardens."
Hyeok Gi-rin smiled as she recalled the memories Yu Gyeong brought up. Because of their age difference, there were stories he remembered that she did not, and listening to them filled her with a strange, wondrous feeling.
"Hahahaha!"
"Heh heh heh heh!"
The two of them laughed and chattered as they pulled out childhood tales. At first Hyeok Gi-rin had laughed only out of consideration for Yu Gyeong, but before long genuine delight rose and her laughter became natural.
The peculiar thing about reminiscing was that one lost all sense of time.
After sharing this and that, Yu Gyeong rose with a regretful expression.
"Whew. Already the night has grown deep. I must return before dawn."
"Oh no—have I taken too much of Elder Brother's time?"
Hyeok Gi-rin looked worried. As a Super-Peak expert she could easily last a full day with only a little qi circulation and breath regulation. Yu Gyeong, however, had never trained in martial arts at all. Handling state affairs by day and then coming here at night to spend time with her would place a considerable strain on his schedule…
"Haha, this much is nothing. If I go back now and sleep a little, I will be fine."
"…Please do not overdo it."
Yu Gyeong left Hyeok Gi-rin's room with a smiling face and thought to himself.
Even as a child you were never good at hiding your expression.
The smile itself looked similar, yet the vitality behind it was vastly different. That was how he had realized the moment he saw her: she was quite wounded because the person she secretly held in her heart had driven a stake through their relationship by calling her a friend.
"Heh heh heh heh."
This bastard… had just driven a railroad spike into the chest of the little sister he would not even let dust settle on?
In truth it was the natural result. Feeling romantic interest while believing someone was a man made no sense, and even knowing she was a woman in men's clothing, finding charm in a woman who constantly dressed as a man was realistically difficult.
The present Hyeok Gi-rin, who did not even wear ordinary powder and was more intent on concealing feminine charm than emphasizing it, could hardly be called attractive.
But… what did any of that matter?
The instant he confirmed that Hyeok Gi-rin's heart had been wounded, every rational judgment toward Ho Cheon-an died.
The eunuchs, watching Yu Gyeong maintain his smiling face, bent their waists even lower. Hyeok Gi-rin might not know it, but the eunuchs did: after long years as emperor, Yu Gyeong always smiled with the same even expression regardless of the emotions flowing through him.
He was on his way back after finishing a secret inspection. There was no need to manage his expression, yet he kept the smiling face. The eunuchs instinctively understood that their emperor was entertaining unpleasant thoughts and was wearing his habitual smile to conceal them.
"Compile a full personal dossier on that bastard. Right now."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Somewhere between night and dawn, the Eastern Depot—the empire's intelligence agency—began to move.